Supply chain management lessons from the Civil War

Most companies start small and grow, and at some point their supply chain lengthens and gets complex. This often happens overnight.

The arc of most companies is that they start small and grow, and at some point their supply chain lengthens and gets complex.

Often this has to happen almost overnight. That's a daunting thought... until you consider the American Civil War.

When southern batteries fired on Ft. Sumter in South Carolina 152 years ago this week, it triggered a bloody war that would drag on for four years. Neither the South nor the North was prepared for it at first.

How large corporations manage supply chains is the stuff of Harvard Business Review case studies. How the federal government reacted quickly and effectively to wage war is the stuff of legend and lessons.